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10 26 PAYWALL

How Trump’s ‘Grand Conspiracy’ Investigation Failed to Become the New QAnon

by Mike Rothschild

10.19.26 |

In Rough Edges, Mike Rothschild writes about fringe groups, conspiracy theories and how the Internet broke our brains. This column is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.

People love a grand conspiracy. The bigger the scheme is, the more people get drawn into it. And the more details and players that are involved, the more believable it seemingly becomes. After all, who would go to the trouble of making up something so complicated? It must be true.

And nobody loves a conspiracy more than President Trump. He and his inner circle especially seem to have fallen in love with what has literally been dubbed “The Grand Conspiracy.” It’s a hopelessly complex, entirely unevidenced theory claiming that a high-ranking group of political figures have been plotting in the shadows for years to stop Donald Trump from making America great again through investigations, indictments and impeachments. It has all the hallmarks of the type of grandiose schemes that Trump supporters especially fall for: countless players, sprawling plots, intricate secrets, and a total lack of evidence that it actually took place.

Despite lacking cogent answers to foundational questions such as “what it is” and “who is doing it,” revenge for the Grand Conspiracy has been a driving force in the administration, prompting an investigation that has trundled along over the last year and a half, involving dozens of officials looking for some reason to indict the president’s enemies.

And there are many, many enemies. They include a greatest hits of Trump’s obsessions and grievances, from former special counsel Jack Smith to minor players like former FBI agent Peter Strzok, and even former President Barack Obama himself. According to Grand Conspiracy believers, they are all powerful Deep State figures who supposedly worked together in a single, years-long scheme to destroy Trump and undo the will of the people.

Precisely what these conspirators have actually done remains unclear — even, seemingly, to the prosecutors themselves, who, per the Wall Street Journal, complained to the Justice Department that they weren’t getting much guidance from the local U.S. attorney. The probe is now being run out of Washington, where it continues to baffle those assigned to move it forward.

In the last few weeks, there have been a host of indications that DOJ efforts to prosecute these figures — and tie them all together into one grand scheme — are falling apart. And, as the Grand Conspiracy prosecution flails at DOJ, the claims also aren’t doing much in the court of public opinion, where Republicans are looking for anything they can find to shore up their crumbling midterm prospects.

Trump has, in the past, excelled at turning his personal grievances and enemies into Republican grievances and enemies. But people aren’t especially interested anymore, at least not if one looks at the Republican Party’s numbers in 2026 midterm polling and beyond. Trump voters seem to now be wondering how Trump’s beefs and feuds impact their own lives. They continue to express their disappointment that the president hasn’t curbed inflation, went to war in Iran despite explicit promises of no new wars, and has failed to bring closure to the Jeffrey Epstein debacle.

With the GOP’s midterms prospects looking bleak, Trump’s most loyal influencers are nonetheless leaning into the Grand Conspiracy narrative to present the illusion that everything is going to work out if they just hang on a little longer and vote Republican. Over and over during the past year, everyone from mainstream pundits like Sean Hannity and Dan Bongino to candidates like Mike Lindell and a host of anonymous conspiracy theorists have played up the Grand Conspiracy as the investigation that will finally bring down the Deep State and bring Trump the vindication he has always deserved.

“John Brennan and Jack Smith have some real, major explaining to do, and that they’re probably going to be under some major indictments in the Grand Conspiracy hearing,” declared Benny Johnson in an October interview with Roger Stone where the two traded speculation about the activities of the “seditious cabal” that’s tried to ruin Trump’s life.

“If Jack Smith is not held accountable, you are going to have a very angry base,” conservative writer Julie Kelly declared on Trump stalwart Mark Levin’s radio show a day earlier. “We already saw the Russiagate perps get off. Hopefully, we’ll have some accountability in Florida and the Grand Conspiracy investigation.”

Like so many other past Trump-world conspiracy theories and “investigations that will reveal everything,” Grand Conspiracy believers are setting themselves up not for triumph, but for more disappointment.

What Does the Grand Conspiracy Involve?

Like many conspiracy theories with countless components and players to track, the intricacies of every allegation in the “Grand Conspiracy” are too complicated to cover in full. They are also irrelevant to understanding the greater gist of the theory, because many either don’t exist in a way that can be proven, or are not crimes at all. The more you examine the details, the more you drift away from the bigger picture.

The short version of the supposed scheme involves everyone from Barack Obama and Joe Biden to Hillary Clinton and James Comey. Glimpses of the conspiracy can, its proponents hold, be seen in in countless forms: Jack Smith’s probe into Jan. 6; the Steele Dossier that gave us infamous allegations like the “pee tape”; Trump’s impeachments; the Biden-era Jan. 6 and classified documents indictments; the New York hush money case involving Stormy Daniels; and the numerous FBI probes into Russian interference in 2016 and Trump’s ties to Moscow.

All of the above was done to subvert Trump’s landslide victories, and to take Trump off the board because he was a threat to the Deep State’s control over global politics, the conspiracy theory holds. Despite failing in 2016, the conspiracy plotters continued to make his life miserable while he was in office through impeachments and probes, then they tried to put him in prison after the 2020 election was stolen from him. Even after he won again, the legal warfare and persecution have never stopped.

But now Trump is taking action. The “Grand Conspiracy” investigation is how the investigators will be investigated, and how the persecutors will be persecuted. Running for a time out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Florida, the sprawling probe has involved major Justice Department figures, countless prosecutors and agents, and untold millions of dollars spent running down something that continues to elude basic understanding or evidence, all the while trying to turn it into something that a jury might be able to make heads or tails of. It’s not going well so far.

The Grand Conspiracy and QAnon

If all of this is starting to sound like a more official version of QAnon, there’s a reason. It’s a more official version of QAnon.

Like the “Grand Conspiracy,” QAnon — which began in October 2017 with a series of cryptic 4chan posts about Hillary Clinton’s imminent “arrest” — revolves around Trump’s enemies being brought to justice in a secret, yet satisfying way. In thousands of cryptic riddles meant for followers to decode, Q promised military tribunals for supposed Deep State luminaries like Obama, the Clintons, George Soros, and countless others.

The conspiracies it alleged became hopelessly complicated, virtually impossible for anyone to fully understand. Many, in fact, were contradictory and nonsensical, based on phony “evidence” or vague predictions. And nothing Q “predicted,” from Clinton’s arrest to public executions of Democrats to the revealing of secret new technologies and cures for disease, ever happened.

Trump, of course, is the focal point of both movements. In the “Grand Conspiracy,” he is the target of the Deep State, fighting for his freedom and his very life. Meanwhile in QAnon, the Deep State is Trump’s target, with the president personally posting on 4chan when he needs to communicate with his followers.

But while the context is different, they share a similar devotion to fantastical stories over facts, to compelling narratives over actual ones. And they share many of the same characters. Kash Patel promoted QAnon on numerous occasions, while “Grand Conspiracy” figures like DOJ special prosecutor John Durham and former FBI director James Comey also had prominent places in Q’s narrative, as both heroes and villains.

Ultimately, QAnon wasn’t started by Trump’s inner circle, but they found it useful to exploit its tenets. The “Grand Conspiracy,” of course, comes directly from Trump and his allies. But not only is it floundering legally, it’s not clear if the plot is proving useful to keeping the base engaged and, ultimately, to the GOP’s electoral chances.

The issue with the “Grand Conspiracy” is not the prospect of its targets being hauled off to prison. It seems unlikely to ever get that far. It’s that government-endorsed conspiracy theories like it, when they find an audience, are remarkably durable and excel at driving anger toward enemies of the state. They can move people toward violence, unhinged hatred, and even betraying their own country; all in service of a paranoid plot that doesn’t exist and nobody can prove.

Revolutionary France was full of bloody acts of revenge against supposed plots by foreign and domestic enemies working in vast spheres of influence that could never quite be proven. During the leadup to the Civil War, countless citizens of both the North and South believed the other side was plotting with foreign agents and secret societies to take over their states. And the rise of Nazism was fueled by relentless propaganda accusing a web of international Jewish financiers of “backstabbing” an undefeated Germany at the end World War I as part of a communist conspiracy that needed to be violently destroyed to save the Reich.

Fortunately, the Grand Conspiracy does not seem to be enjoying the same success as those historical precedents. Even QAnon managed to keep generating discussion and speculation for years, gaining new followers even as it recycled its plots and descended into inscrutable riddles. It created a narrative that has stubbornly lodged itself into mainstream conservatism. The “Grand Conspiracy,” meanwhile, is quietly flopping, as prosecutors fail to bring the investigation to fruition, and Republican voters worry more about gas prices and food costs than who might have committed minor infractions a decade ago.

But like Revolutionary France and Nazi Germany, even the grandest conspiracy outlives its usefulness when people figure out they’re being had. And the “Grand Conspiracy” might have already hit that point. It’s not moving the needle with voters, and it’s not actually getting anyone convicted.

When it fails, it will require yet another new conspiracy theory to explain how it all went wrong.

Mike Rothschild writes Rough Edges for TPM, covering fringe groups, conspiracy theories and how the Internet broke our brains. He is a journalist and expert in the growth and impact of conspiracy theories. He is the author of the first complete book on the QAnon conspiracy movement, 2021’s The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything; as well as Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories in 2023.

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RWW

02/10/2026

by

Kyle Mantyla

After Ryan Walters’ failed ideological crusade, Oklahoma is restoring evidence-based history and bringing basic sanity back to public schools.

Trump’s spymaster is a hero to the MAGA fringe after extraordinary ballot seizure that followed up on their longtime fixations.

On Jan. 6, 2026, a group of election conspiracy theorists released a report detailing allegations that the 2020 presidential results in Georgia’s Fulton County were “falsely padded” with questionable ballots. A little over three weeks later, FBI agents raided the county’s offices and seized 700 boxes of voting records.

This extraordinary raid has prompted widespread alarm amid a recent spate of comments from President Trump indicating that he might once again try to somehow disrupt the U.S. tradition of free and fair elections, including through attempts to “nationalize” or “take over” state-run votes. Democrats, noting the situation in Fulton County and ongoing federal occupations of blue cities, have warned Trump may attempt to meddle with vote counts or engage in widespread voter intimidation. Trump allies are also openly musing about the possibility of having ICE agents “surround the polls.”

Even with all of Trump’s other threats to the election system, the raid in Fulton County stands out as an extreme escalation. And there are multiple indications that this push from the White House is taking cues from the fixations of hardcore election conspiracy theorists. Even after Trump’s return to office, these diehards refuse to accept his loss in the 2020 election as legitimate and want the voting system overhauled to prevent any similar outcome in the future. And, in the wake of the raid, some of those extreme elements of the Trump base are rejoicing and predicting there is much more to come.

The “Fulton County Report of Investigation of the 2020 General Election” was billed as coming from the “Election Oversight Group” and dated Jan. 6, 2026. EOG is a supposed watchdog group that has repeatedly filed complaints against election officials in Georgia and produced research documents based on thoroughly debunked allegations. Some of the group’s past work was cited by Trump and his attorneys in 2024 as he defended himself against Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation and pressed his ultimately successful case for presidential immunity. There are indications this more recent EOG report also made its way to Trump’s team and even that it may have influenced the mysterious investigation that led to the Fulton County raid.

Alleged fraud in the 2020 election in Georgia has been an obsession of various Trump allies who worked to contest his loss that year as he sought re-election following his first term. Despite the flood of wild theories about what may have happened, the Georgia election result was affirmed in three separate counts overseen by officials from Trump’s own party. Judges have also consistently rejected efforts to challenge the result in court due to a lack of real evidence. Nevertheless, members of the fringe continue to question the outcome, and those conspiracy theories now seem to be part of the Trump administration’s official justification as it tries to overhaul election infrastructure and reinvestigate past outcomes ahead of the coming campaigns.

On Jan. 22, 2026, several days before the FBI raid, President Trump made a post on his Truth Social platform screengrabbing a tweet from Liz Harrington, who worked as a spokeswoman for his 2024 campaign. In her tweet, Harrington promoted a claim about “unsigned” voting records in Fulton County that had appeared in the EOG report. Harrington suggested this proved the 2020 election there was “all a fraud.”

Harrington, whose belief in 2020 election conspiracy theories long made her a controversial figure in Trump’s orbit, reportedly helped author the documents related to EOG research that were shared by Trump during the 2024 campaign. One EOG executive confirmed to TPM that Harrington had engaged with the group. Harrington did not respond to requests for comment from TPM about this latest EOG report, any role it might have played in the raid, and whether her tweet, later reposted by Trump on Truth Social, was the only way she brought the report to the president’s attention.

Kevin Moncla, who, TPM previously reported, has been associated with EOG in corporate records and was listed as an author of the 2026 Fulton County report, claims to have brought that research to the attention of DOJ officials. In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper, Moncla said he spoke with a U.S. attorney about some of the allegations in the EOG report prior to the raid. Moncla, who did not respond to a request for comment from TPM, also told the newspaper that another person who worked on the report was in touch with officials.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has reportedly tasked Thomas Albus, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri to investigate so-called “election integrity” cases. Albus oversaw the search warrant used to execute the Fulton County raid. His office did not immediately respond to questions from TPM about whether he engaged with Moncla or anyone else from EOG.

The White House has said the raid is part of a broader inquiry being led by Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and FBI Director Kash Patel. In a statement to TPM, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle rejected the idea that questions about the 2020 race are baseless conspiracy theories.

“President Trump pledged to secure America’s elections, and he has tasked the most talented team of patriots to do just that. Efforts by the failing legacy media to sow internal division are a desperate distraction that will not work,” Ingle said. “President Trump has full confidence in his entire team. DNI Gabbard and FBI Director Patel are working together to implement the President’s election integrity priorities, and their work continues to serve him and the entire country well.”

The White House did not directly respond to questions about whether any administration officials were in touch with the EOG or aware of its report. The FBI declined to comment.

Gabbard has said she was dispatched to the scene of the ballot seizure by the president and Bondi. She was also on the phone with Trump in its aftermath. In response to questions from TPM about the ballot seizure, Gabbard’s office pointed to a letter she wrote following questions from Congress about her participation in the raid. In that letter, Gabbard noted her “presence was requested by the president” and argued she had “broad statutory authority” to be involved in “election security” matters. The press secretary for the office of the director of national intelligence also provided a statement.

“President Trump’s directive to secure our elections was clear, and DNI Gabbard has and will proudly continue to take actions within her authorities, alongside our interagency partners, including the FBI, to support ensuring the integrity of our elections,” the press secretary said.

Gabbard’s office did not respond to questions about whether she was in contact with EOG or aware of their report.

Out on the fringe, election deniers certainly seem pleased by Gabbard’s involvement. They’re also hopeful the Fulton County raid is the beginning of something much bigger.

On Sunday, conspiracy streamer Alex Jones, host of “InfoWars,” took the day off. Some of the crew who filled in for him said Jones needed to rest his gravelly voice. One of the understudies who stepped up in Jones’ absence was Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right militant group, the Oath Keepers. Rhodes spent hours on different streaming shows associated with Jones; “InfoWars” operation on Sunday talking about Fulton County and praising Gabbard.

As he expressed optimism about the raid, Rhodes said he lacked faith in many elements of the administration due to the incomplete disclosure of files related to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which he called “kabuki theater.” However, Rhodes repeatedly described Gabbard as an exception.

“I don’t trust anything out of the DOJ or the FBI at all. The only person I trust … in the intelligence agencies is Tulsi Gabbard,” Rhodes said. “That’s it. And her team. That’s it. Nobody else.”

Rhodes later suggested that Gabbard’s role in the raid made him believe it would seriously address the extreme Trump base’s grievances related to election infrastructure.

“I was glad to see Tulsi there, because otherwise, I would’ve been like a lot of other black pill MAGA people. Like, we don’t believe anything we see out of the DOJ or the, or the FBI — would think it’s this window dressing,” Rhodes said, adding, “But I think Tulsi being in there … sends a different message.”

Rhodes was a major figure in the efforts to fight and overturn Trump’s 2020 loss. He was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6 attack before having that sentence commuted by Trump. Since getting out of prison, Rhodes has returned to pro-Trump activism.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes hosting “War Room” on InfoWars. (Photo: InfoWars/Rumble)

During his various appearances, Rhodes was joined by people he described as “2020 election fraud OGs.” The roster included Georgia activist Garland Favorito, who is listed as a contributor to the EOG Fulton County report. Favorito brought along a video clip which seemed to show an AI-generated woman praising the raid.

“We worked so hard for almost six years for our legal right to these election records,” the woman said. “Thank you, DOJ and FBI, for seizing Georgia election records, so we’ll have truth. Hopefully you’ll return to Georgia and pick up a few more truckloads.”

As he interviewed another right wing activist named Kristen Meghan Kelly, Rhodes said he wanted the raid to be “the wedge that blows open the deep state in this country.” He also claimed he had seen Gabbard at an event in August and suggested his interactions with her were another reason for his optimism.

“She was at Ron Paul’s 90th birthday party, we were both there and we saw her there,” Rhodes said to Kelly. “So yeah, I think she’s carrying a torch and her presence at the raid, the FBI raid in Georgia, is what gives me hope. … Her being involved lets me know that this is real.”

Kelly agreed.

“She’s a badass,” Kelly said of Gabbard. “She’s not risk averse. … This type of action is what is going to finally feed the hunger for accountability. And there’s a lot of accountability that is needed.”

Gabbard’s office did not respond to a question about whether she had been in contact with Rhodes.

The various InfoWars broadcasts were peppered with advertisements for “combat daggers,” “trench knives,” “folding knives,” and questionable supplements including “ultra methylene blue.” At one point, as another host, Rob Dew, plugged Jones’ signature blend of the controversial blue serum, Rhodes also boasted of having been in contact with another member of Trump’s Cabinet, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. Rhodes would go on to say he believed Gabbard should be “our number one pick for president in 2028” and that she and Kennedy would ultimately form a “fantastic ticket” together.

However, first there was InfoWars business to attend to.

“Did you take your methylene blue this morning?” Dew asked Rhodes.

“I have not,” Rhodes said. “Let’s get some done.”

“Basically, what it does is it helps your mitochondria, uh, process energy better,” Dew explained.

Medical experts don’t necessarily agree with that claim. However, as ever, Rhodes and the others on the fringe have their own set of beliefs.

“Robert Kennedy Jr. likes it, I like it,” Rhodes said of the supplement. “You know, I just saw him in D.C. It was at the MAHA event for his birthday.”

HHS did not respond to a request for comment about whether Kennedy had been in contact with Rhodes. Dew also didn’t press the question. He had another priority at the moment and called out to assistants offscreen.

“Bring in the liquid!”

Send Tips

Hunter Walkeris an investigative reporter for Talking Points Memo. He is an author and former White House correspondent whose work has appeared in a variety of publications including the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and New York Magazine. He can be reached at hunter@talkingpointsmemo.com

Includes:

DOJElection ConspiraciesElection IntegrityFeaturedFulton CountyOath KeepersStewart Rhodes...

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RWW

02/09/2026

by

Kyle Mantyla

“The All-American Halftime Show," born out of outrage over Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance, fell short of the hype. From Kid Rock’s poor lip synching to Erika Kirk being MIA, it was simply dull.

Corporate interests dominate the organization planning the reconstruction of Gaza.

Trump has moved the Republican Party away from its decades-old opposition to same-sex marriage, and public support remains high.

Pete Hegseth, who likes to call himself the “Secretary of War,” spoke after Trump to baptize the U.S. and especially its military. He did so by highlighting the worship services he’s been leading at the Pentagon. And he even suggested that soldiers can gain salvation by fighting for the United States.

It turns out the anti-abortion March for Life demonstration was a measles superspreader event.

Under Trump, the DOJ has changed how it brings terrorism cases, and is training them on the opposition.

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RWW 2 26

Donald Trump may not have been the first president to believe in conspiracy theories, but he was definitely the first candidate whose election was fueled by pandering to those who do.

A right-wing conspiracy theory website is at the heart of the latest Justice Department resignation in protest of the Trump administration’s interference at the DOJ.

REF

A right-wing conspiracy theory website is at the heart of the latest Justice Department resignation in protest of the Trump administration’s interference at the DOJ.

In her Tuesday resignation letter to acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, federal prosecutor Denise Cheung, who was in charge of the criminal division in the Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office, cited her refusal to open a grand jury investigation into Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency grants and to freeze assets of the grant initiative.

Cheung noted in her resignation letter that there’s simply not enough evidence to support these actions — actions that Martin, a Trump ally, directed her to take. The only evidence driving the Trump administration push for an investigation and potential asset freeze is a 5-minute video clip from the known misinformation purveyor Project Veritas, which purports to show a former EPA employee speaking about distributing climate specific funding to non-profit organizations before the start of Trump’s presidency.

The issue at hand centers on EPA administrator Lee Zeldin’s push to rescind $20 billion in grants that were already allocated for climate projects by the Biden administration, according to reports from the Washington Post and CNN. In a video posted on X last week, Zeldin claimed that the grant money, which he referred to as being part of a “scheme,” had been improperly dolled out by the Biden administration.

In his post on X, Zeldin references what he calls an “extremely disturbing video” of a former Biden-era EPA employee talking about “tossing gold bars off the Titanic.”

The “disturbing” video in question is a Project Veritas clip that shows a former Biden-era EPA employee speaking about distributing funding to “nonprofits, states, tribes” ahead of Trump’s presidency. It’s the only supposed proof that Zeldin has put forward as justification for his attempts to claw back the money and contracts tied to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

Zeldin also mentioned in his announcement on X that he “found” $20 billion worth of funding in an “outside financial institution”, but, later, in the same clip also says “there is zero reason to suspect any wrongdoing by the bank.”

“It’s ridiculous that the head of the EPA is justifying an illegal funding blockade with a selectively edited video from a far-right, shady organization known for spreading misinformation to serve Republican political narratives,” Seth Nelson, Evergreen Action Deputy Communications Director, told TPM.

The reliance on this video and the lack of supporting evidence for wrongdoing is in large part the reason why Cheung refused to support a grand jury investigation into the Biden administration’s EPA grants.

“I was asked to review documentation supplied by the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) to open a criminal investigation into whether a contract had been unlawfully awarded by an executive agency before the change in Administration and to issue grand jury subpoenas pursuant to this investigation,” she wrote in her Tuesday resignation letter.

Cheung goes on to explain in her letter that she had conferred with others in the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office, “all of whom have substantial white collar criminal prosecution experience,” to determine whether or not there was enough evidence to open a grand jury investigation. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s office insisted that the Project Veritas clip provided enough evidence to justify an investigation, according to CNN. But Cheung determined that there was not.

Cheung noted that she then “took point” on a process to request that “the bank freeze assets” of the EPA funding. Coordinating with an FBI official in the Washington field office, Cheung drafted a letter to the bank recommending an asset freeze.

Martin, however, told Cheung to use more explicit language in her draft letter that said “the government has probable cause to believe that the funds on deposit in the above-referenced account(s) at [named bank] are subject to seizure and forfeiture to the United States based upon violations, ” Cheung said in her letter.

Cheung then told Martin that there is insufficient evidence to use this type of language.

“When I explained that the quantum of evidence did not support that action, you stated that you believed that there was sufficient evidence,” she continued. “As I shared with you, at this juncture, based upon the evidence I have reviewed, I still do not believe that there is sufficient evidence to issue the letter you described, including sufficient evidence to tell the bank that there is probable cause to seize the particular accounts identified.”

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no lnx

Let The Golden Dukes 2023 Voting Begin: Santos Was Just The Tip Of The Iceberg

Announcing the nominees for the 2023 Golden Dukes awards.

By Nicole Lafond and TPM Staff

|

:{December 21, 2023

Sure, it was an epic year for public corruption on a large scale, but also on stupid and small scales. For one thing, George Santos existed. But the expelled congressman’s resume padding and (alleged) fraud was given a run for its money by Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) insatiable appetite for (allegedly) accepting bribes in the form of gold bars, or Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ gluttonous penchant for luxury yachts and vacations with billionaires.

But the Golden Dukes are about so much more than your average, shameless public corruption. TPM lives to celebrate mendacity and we raise our glasses to the bad, salacious and crazy in all of its most foolish, and also carnal, forms. Whether you’re a congresswoman lying about vapin’ and gropin’ in a public theater or a governor so desperate to find your MAGAland footing you pull out a poop map during a debate — we’re here to celebrate you.

Last week, we asked you to submit nominations for the worst offenders in seven different categories. TPM readers, you delivered. So much so that we had to spend hours winnowing down the list.

Now we need your help again. Help us crown 2023’s most odious weasels by voting below. May the best bigot win!

Category 1: Best Scandal — Local Venue

There are some bad acts back home that don’t make it into the national news cycle. And then there are these.

The nominees:

Eric Adams Renting Prospective Services To Turkey: The extremely lively NYC mayor is under investigation over allegations that his campaign accepted illegal donations, including some from the Turkish government. Only in New York will your constituents rejoice to learn the often-despised city mayor is even more corrupt than they already suspected.

— Nicole Lafond

Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Podiumgate (YES WE KNOW IT’S TECHNICALLY A LECTERN): The former White House press secretary and current Republican governor of Arkansas deserves some props for her administration’s shady $19,000 payment for a lectern from a political friend and her office’s subsequent bid to kill the state’s FOIA in order to keep it secret.

— Nicole Lafond

Mark Robinson’s Whole Thing, Basically: North Carolina Lieutenant Gov. Mark Robinson is a special case in the storied annals of the Golden Dukes. He didn’t get this nomination for one particular episode, his entire political career has been an episode. Robinson has a propensity for making shocking and scandalous statements in his speeches and prolific Facebook posting that run the gamut from racial stereotypes to religious discrimination to bizarre conspiracy mongering. TPM helped bring Robinson’s history of bizarre and offensive comments to light in March, in a piece that also highlighted his online pro-wrestling alter ego “Bigg Smoke.” Exactly one month after that story, Robinson announced a run for governor and he’s currently leading in some polls.

— Hunter Walker

DeSantis vs. Disney: To begin, I’ll point out there is a 1,500 word Wikipedia entry detailing all the ins and outs of Mr. Poop Map (see below) vs House of Mouse. Everything started when Disney denounced the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” Bill. DeSantis tried to retaliate by taking away a special tax status the company had had since the 1960s. Some other bickering and jockeying happened. Then Walt Disney sued DeSantis for violating its First Amendment rights. The upshot is basically that Ron is getting sued by Mickey Mouse and somehow managed to come off as a Republican who is anti-business and anti-free speech. Amazing.

— Joe Ragazzo

Vote below:

Category 2: Judge Lest Ye Be Judged

2023 gifted us not just a new cast of judicial characters to go along with the various Trump indictments, but judges old (Clarence Thomas) and new (Matthew Kacsmaryk) were on their worst behavior this year.

The nominees:

Clarence Thomas’ Billionaire Buddy: The Supreme Court justice has been globetrotting on ritzy vacations with conservative movement stalwart Harlan Thomas for years, we learned this year, and even sold him property — all out of the public eye. The problem, you see, was that his salary was too low — and to his credit he had been sounding the alarm about this problem for years.

— John Light

Matthew Kacsmaryk, Judge Shopaholic: The Trump appointee has turned Amarillo into a bustling hub of right-wing (specifically anti-abortion and anti-Biden administration) lawsuits, with ideologically aligned plaintiffs secure in the knowledge that there is virtually no legal reasoning too tortured for this partisan hack to give his stamp of approval.

— Kate Riga

U.S. District Judge Aileen (don’t call me sneaky when I’m just incompetent and don’t call me incompetent when I’m just sneaky): Cannon is in so far over her head in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case that whenever she tries to carry water for Donald Trump she darn near drowns.

— David Kurtz

Unabashed Zealot Jim Ho: For presumably taking a break from screaming at women on their way into Planned Parenthood appointments to write in an actual official legal ruling that doctors suffer an “aesthetic injury” during abortions as they are deprived of seeing a cute baby.

— Kate Riga

Sam Alito (take your “appearance” of “conflict” and shove it): Like Thomas, Alito got the ProPublica treatment this year, and was revealed to have taken a luxury vacation to Alaska to catch enormous fish with Paul Singer, a billionaire who has had and continues to have all sorts of business before the court. But he also gets a nomination for agreeing to a series of bizarre, softball WSJ interviews, conducted, astoundingly, by a lawyer who had a massive case before the Supreme Court, and for his oh so clever political maneuvering as he got ready to scrap Roe, also revealed this year.

— John Light

Vote below:

Category 3: Best Use Of A Visual Aid

Donald Trump gifted us the sharpie hurricane map. This year’s class of visual virtuosos hope to build on his legacy.

The nominees:

Vivek Ramaswamy’s Childlike Scrawl: For dropping a soggy popper of a bombshell with “Nikki = corrupt” scribbled on a legal pad at the GOP debate, even more of a waste of time as he should have been scoping out weapons to defend himself when she inevitably snapped and murdered him on prime time television.

— Kate Riga

Ron DeSantis’s Poop Map: Someone somewhere, probably in a board meeting, decided what the world needed was actually more debates and so we were gifted a tussle between California Governor Gavin Newsom and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. When Newsom pointed out that Florida’s mental health system was third last behind Mississippi and Texas, DeSantis whipped out a map of San Francisco that allegedly charted where human feces had been found on the street. It’s hard to know what DeSantis’ point was here, but it might have underscored Newsom’s.

— Joe Ragazzo

MTG Shares Hunter Biden Nudes: The Republicans say a lot of stuff about Hunter Biden. It’s hard to keep track of it all. But every once in a while something breaks through the maelstrom. Case in point: During a hearing in July, Marjorie Taylor Green displayed explicit photos of Hunter Biden. Who was she showing them to, you might reasonably ask? Two IRS whistleblowers, of course. What was her point? She alleged Biden had violated “The Mann Act,” which I could tell you more about but, frankly, I’ve already have devoted too many words to this grifter.

— Joe Ragazzo

Nancy Mace’s Scarlet A: Mace, who likes sex but not as much as prayer, decided to wear a bright red “A” on her shirt back in October because she “felt demonized” after voting to oust the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy. I’d argue the real “visual aid” was simply Nancy herself in an almost too-on-the-nose demonstration of the GOP’s constant grasps for attention in the form of feigned victimhood, often comparing themselves to either real or fictional characters who faced actual persecution or ostracization.

— Joe Ragazzo

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Category 4: Summer Of George

A new category dedicated to celebrating George Santos’ various aliases and personas. Vote for your favorite, if picking is even possible.

Vote below:

Category 5: Best Scandal — Sex & Generalized Carnality

We’re not here to kink shame. Calling out hypocrites just happens to be our kink.

The nominees:

The Throuple That Blew Up The Florida GOP: We couldn’t have dreamed up a better end-of-the-year sex scandal if we tried. A Florida Republican “family values” power couple, one member of which was at the helm of the state Republican Party, the other the mastermind behind Moms For Liberty and the “don’t say gay” bill, were outed as sniveling hypocrites when the woman they’ve been having a three-way, consensual sexual relationship with came forward to accuse the husband, Christian Ziegler, of rape.

— Nicole Lafond

Shake, Shake. Shake, Senora: Every detail of this story is priceless. Newly single stalwart MAGA Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) had a rough night out in September. Boebert went with a male companion to a performance of the “Beetlejuice” musical in Denver. The classy evening of musical theater ended badly and the pair were ejected from the theater after being accused of vaping and disturbing other patrons. Not content to admit fault or just move on, her campaign initially denied any wrongdoing and said the congresswoman is simply “a supporter of the performing arts” who was “guilty” of nothing other than “singing along, laughing and enjoying herself.” Security footage of Boebert and her date indicated they were overcome by the touring production of the macabre movie musical adaptation. The pair were filmed groping each other. Oh yeah, the vaping allegation was definitely real too. The tape and comments from witnesses also indicated that Boebert got into a confrontation with a pregnant woman and pulled a “do you know who I am?” on her way out the door. Boebert subsequently admitted she “fell short of her values” that night and her relationship imploded after her beau was outed as a Democrat who owned a bar that hosts drag shows. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, BEETLEJUICE!!

— Hunter Walker

Playboy Mike Pence: For proclaiming on the debate stage loudly yet robotically, stiffly yet while chuckling, provocatively yet to no discernible reaction whatsoever, that he does, in fact, have sex with his wife, “mother.”

— Kate Riga

Randy ‘Enjoys Interacting With Constituents’ McNally: The Tennessee Republican lieutenant governor, who has supported some of the state’s anti-LGBTQ legislation, posted 80-plus comments from his verified Instagram account on racy shirtless photos of a young gay man, which his office defended as him being “a prolific social media commenter” who “enjoys interacting with constituents and Tennesseans of all religions, backgrounds and orientations on social media.”

— Nicole Lafond

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Category 6: Meritorious Achievement in the Crazy

We literally can’t explain it.

The nominees:

Rudy Crazies Himself Into Bankruptcy: This old Dukes standby, as rich in corruption as in sheer absurdity, took his doddering antics to a new level of financial liability this year by flouting a defamation case brought by Georgia election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman until the very end: a $148 million judgment which will likely haunt America’s ex-mayor past the grave.

— Josh Kovensky

Markwayne Mullin’s Testosterone Explosion: Just before the Thanksgiving recess, the Republican Men were Losing It. Kevin McCarthy kidney punched Tim Burchett in a House basement hallway, James Comer verbally smacked Jared Moskowitz during a House Oversight Committee hearing for wearing too much blue, and Markwayne Mullin challenged the president of the Teamsters union, a witness during a Senate Help Committee hearing, to a literal fist fight, forcing the 82-year-old Bernie Sanders to shut down his machismo tear: “You’re a United States senator! Sit down!”

— Nicole Lafond

Paul Gosar’s Groyper Staffer: What if we told you there was a member of Congress who had a staffer that was a prominent follower of neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes? That would be pretty crazy right? Well, what if we told you that staffer went by the online alias “Chikken” and had sworn undying allegiance to Fuentes and the “white race.” Yeah, that’s even crazier. Well, that’s exactly what TPM exposed back in April when we detailed the links between a digital director for Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and the Hitler-loving Fuentes’ “Groyper” movement. It was a new level of nuts even for the MAGA wing of Congress. Perhaps the craziest bit of all is that Gosar kept “Chikken” on staff following a nationwide scandal.

— Hunter Walker

MTG Explains Global Warming: “People are not affecting climate change. You’re going to tell me that back in the ice age, how much taxes did people pay, and how many changes did governments make to melt the ice? The climate is going to continue to change.” — Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ice Age), on X, 9/5/23.

Vote below:

Category 7: Best Scandal: General Interest

The Duke’s version of Best Picture, awarded to the scandal that best exemplifies the form.

The nominees:

Senator Bob Menedez and his gold bars: By refusing to resign after being indicted for allegedly aiding the government of Egypt in exchange for cash, a Mercedes-Benz, and gold bars, Menendez is acting like he’s been here before. The only sitting senator to be indicted two different times for two different sets of crimes, he’s gone to the sequel playbook for round two: bigger, gaudier, and with a confusing side plot involving an American roller skating star who found herself on the wrong end of a U.S.-supplied Apache helicopter operated by the Egyptian military. Cool!

— Derick Dirmaier

Sam Bankman-Fried and the collapse of FTX: SBF’s offenses are legion if not explicitly political. He donated millions of dollars to political causes and forced effective altruism into the mainstream, but what’s earned him a spot in the main event is the scale at which he accomplished good old-fashioned fraud. As Manhattan’s top prosecutor said after SBF was found guilty and sentenced to 110 years on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy for stealing up to $10 billion: “The crypto industry might be new. But this kind of fraud, this kind of corruption, is as old as time.”

— Derick Dirmaier

For Ken Paxton’s Friends, Anything: The long-serving and long-indicted Texas Attorney General came dangerously close to accountability this summer after the state House impeached him for his relationship with a local real estate bro who asked — and apparently received — access and tipoffs about an FBI investigation.

— Josh Kovensky

The Great Replacement: In April, Fox News ditched cable news’ highest-rated host, Tucker Carlson. On the way to his ouster, Carlson had many brushes with Duke-worthy scandal. He consistently promoted conspiracy theories to his millions of viewers including the racist mythos about white Americans being systematically replaced with immigrants, COVID misinformation, anti-gay panic, January 6 denialism, and, of course, the 2020 “Big Lie.” Carlson’s litany of falsehoods figured into the over $787 million defamation settlement his network was forced to pay to Dominion Voting Systems, an election software company. Discovery in that case dredged up Carlson’s racist text messages. He also played a part in a sexism and harassment suit from one of his former producers that cast his show as a haven for “systemic lying, bullying, and conspiracy-mongering.” However, in the world of Fox News where sexual harassment suits have piled up and partisan lies are the coin of the realm, none of that may have been Tucker’s last straw. According to Brian Stelter, who chronicled Carlson’s exit in his aptly titled book “Network of Lies,” the host’s most fatal sins included badmouthing Fox execs and leaving Rupert Murdoch feeling he “got too big for his boots.” Of course, Carlson, who now plies his trade before a much smaller audience inside the desiccated husk of the site once known as Twitter, went out trying to spin fresh conspiracy theories about his own demise and suggested it was due to Dominion. Sure it was, Tucker. Sure it was.

— Hunter Walker

The George Santos Oeuvre: See above.

The Clarence Thomas Billionaire Omnibus: See above.

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“Don’t retreat, instead reload!”

:{Much of the right-wing’s resurgence is due to its intense investment in technology and communications. Republicans, as well as right-wing conservatives, realized that their image could be salvaged if repackaged properly. And the most discussed post-2008 election concern was the advantage held by the Left in communication infrastructure. In a December 2008 reflection piece titled the “Roots of Defeat,” Republican consultant Patrick Ruffini wrote in the National Review that progressive news sites, like the Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo, were the constant purveyors of “attack memes” against the conservative movement and its candidates:{. Talking Points Memo}: had led the liberal blogosphere’s mobilization against President Bush’s attempt to privatize Social Security in 2005. In addition to its rapid news coverage, the web site posted the phone numbers of Democratic politicians who had indicated support for Bush’s proposal and encouraged readers to call. The groundswell of opposition from bloggers, then the general public, :{marked the first significant policy defeat for President Bush}:.

As Ruffini noted, the defeat punctured Bush’s “aura of invincibility and presage[d] the death spiral to come.” ThinkProgress, where I began working in 2009, had helped expose much of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s relationship with the Bush administration, and Talking Points Memo broke the story of the Bush Justice Department’s systematic political firings of U.S. Attorneys around the country. As the 2008 election unfolded, the McCain campaign’s positions and statements were instantly fact checked and scrutinized by leading progressive web sites. Ruffini observed that progressive blogs did actual research and reporting while most conservative bloggers were “generally commentators and not reporters.” He also noted that the Right lacked many of the technological innovations employed by Barack Obama’s campaign, and, more important, lacked a powerful online megaphone for its ideological goals.}:

As conservative writer Ross Douthat noted in a post-election interview about the future of conservatism, the Internet also served as a vital organizing platform for progressives.DailyKos, Douthat said, was one of the main sources of “left-wing populist anger against the excesses of the Bush Administration.” The DailyKos system allows the public, after registering, to post blog entries, which are either selected by moderators or voted up to the “Recommended” list by other users. Other organizations, from MoveOn to Democracy for America to the message board Democratic Underground, had helped feed the surge in leftist populism through the Internet by providing opportunities for like-minded people to find each other instantly.